Sarah Labovitz

Sarah Labovitz is currently serving as the Director of the Hugh A. Glauser School of Music at Kent State University. Previously, Dr. Labovitz was the Chairmen, Associate Director of Bands, and Coordinator of Music Education at Arkansas State University. She directed the Symphonic Winds, taught undergraduate and graduate music education and conducting, and supervised student interns. Prior to her appointment at A-State, Dr. Labovitz served as the Assistant Director of Bands/Director of Athletic Bands at Washburn University. She earned a BME from Bowling Green State University, an MME from Indiana University, and a DMA in Wind Conducting from the University of Kansas where she studied with Dr. Paul Popiel.

Dr. Labovitz is an active guest conductor having had the pleasure of working with numerous ensembles throughout the United States and abroad. While in Arkansas in addition to her work with the A-State Symphonic Winds, guest conducting the A-State Wind Ensemble, and visiting band rooms across the Mid-South, she served as the music director for the Diamond Brass Band. In addition to guest conducting, Dr. Labovitz is a sought-after clinician who has given multiple presentations at the National Association for Music Education’s National In-Service Conference, the College Band Director National Association’s (CBDNA) National and Regional Conferences, and numerous state music educator conventions.  She has had the honor of presenting at the Midwest Clinic International Band and Orchestra Conference three times within the last ten years.

Building bridges between instrumental music education at the collegiate and secondary level is a lifelong pursuit of Dr. Labovitz.  She was a contributing author to the Teaching Music Through Performance in Band series and currently serves as a Music Education Consultant for the NAMM sponsored Music Achievement Council, a co-chair of CBDNA’s Music Education Committee, and a member of the National Band Association’s Merrill Jones Memorial Young Band Composition Contest Committee. Past service to the profession includes time as an Arkansas Bandmasters Association Board Member,  the Collegiate Chair for the Arkansas Music Educators Association, and President of the Arkansas Chapter of CBDNA.  She was recognized for her service to the profession, community, and her university as the 2021 recipient of A-State’s Faculty Achievement Professional Service Award.

Dr. Labovitz has served as a production assistant on the NAXOS recordings “Landscapes” and “In the Shadow of No Towers,” Michael Torke’s album Concerto for Orchestra,” and the Klavier recording “Of Shadow and Light.” She is in demand as a marching band adjudicator and drill writer and she served as Arkansas State’s Director of Athletic Bands for five years, leading the Howlers Pep Bands and the Sound of the Natural State Marching Band. She has stayed active on her primary instrument, the clarinet, by performing as principal clarinetist with the Jonesboro Community Wind Ensemble and subbing with the Delta Symphony Orchestra, a regional symphony based out of Jonesboro, AR. 

Her public-school experience includes serving as Director of Bands at Athens High School in Athens, OH and Director of Instrumental Music at Admiral King High School in Lorain, OH. Having grown up in Akron, she is excited to be back home in Northeast Ohio with her husband Dr. Charles Page, who currently serves as a music teacher with Akron Public Schools and freelance tuba player, and her two rescue labs, Rosie and Sadie.